Finished stories set in an alternate universe to that introduced in the show, or which alter events from the show significantly, but which include the Roswell characters. Aliens play a role in these fics. All complete stories on the main AU with Aliens board will eventually be moved here.

begonia9508: Many years ago when I was in college and believed that citizens should participate in politics, i came across an essay about shadow governments. Since then i have watched and now I believe that the men who hold the positions are not necessarily the ones who run things. I imagine that this is the same in most countries.

L-J-L 76: The question is not will they find Max and friends, but will they do anything to them. Powers are something that Max is studying.

keepsmiling7: I guess if Max has blood type alien 101 then the women have blood types 102 and so forth.

Chapter 31

Roswell

Jim Valenti, that is sheriff Valenti, had not seen Kyle, his son, for several months. Roswell had its problems. They were the problems of any rural community trying to become a city. Of course, there were the never ending rules and suggestions from the city counsel. Laws were to be enforced, except for when they entrapped relatives or worse, mistresses of counsel members. Milk visitors and tourist for all the infractions you can, but when the visitors were bringing in money during conventions, be lenient. Remember they were paying your salary.

Jim still stopped by the Crashdown, but the old restaurant just wasn’t the same. Jim had to admit that he enjoyed seeing the mini skirted waitresses and their bobbing head pieces every morning as he stopped for coffee, but he also enjoyed talking to Jeff Parker. Jeff always had a finger on the pulse of the small city. Now, Jeff and Nancy had moved to the city to be near their daughter and soon to be grandchild.

Amy, his live in girlfriend and almost wife, was suggesting that she wanted to take a vacation to the bigger city up north to see her daughter, Maria. Jim agreed with her because he would like to see Kyle, also. It was 8:30 in the morning. He was sure that Kyle’s job should have gotten him up by this time. Jim thumbed in Kyle’s number as he broke the law about using cell phones while driving. There had been no answer. Jim left a message on the machine.

Amy had also called Maria. A sleepy sounding Michael stated, “Maria isn’t here right now. She is helping Max at the medical office at his lab.”

Michael typically did not think to elaborate. Amy could only think, “What could Maria be doing at a medical office? Maria wasn’t cut out to work with a doctor. Maria couldn’t stand the sight of blood. Maria couldn’t stand the sight of needles. Amy couldn’t imagine anything beyond tongue depressors that Maria could handle.

It was afternoon when the office called Jim. “You have a phone message from Kyle. The message says, ‘ It’s a boy.’”

Jim immediately called the office and began to arrange to take some time off. “It’s a boy,” was enough to excite Amy. She wanted to see Maria, but all women get excited over births and babies.

In the city

Jim had no idea of how to find Max’s lab. There was no notice of anything like it is the phone directory. He called Max, but both he and Liz were not at home. He finally reached Jeff Parker. “Hey Jim, congratulations. You are a granddaddy,” Jeff said the minute he recognized Jim’s voice. Jeff didn’t know the location of the lab either, but he did have Liz’s cell phone number. When Liz heard Jim’s voice she said, “Hey grandpa, If you will drive to this address, Maria will come out and guide you into the building.”

Of course, when he heard that Maria would guide him in, Jim wondered why Liz wouldn’t do that. After he entered the building and saw Liz trying to hold the baby when she no longer had any lap, he understood. It wouldn’t be long before another baby would make its appearance.

Maria led Jim and Amy into a small lunch room off the series of offices and labs. It wasn’t long before they were joined by Kyle. It was in the middle of Jim congratulating Kyle for the birth of his son, when Maria stated, “Everything Kyle did was nine months ago. The hard work today has been done by Tess, Doctor Sanchez and me. We threw Kyle out of the delivery room because he kept getting in the way. Of course, a promise to change diapers for the next month might make us appreciate Kyle’s effort in this event, today.”

Kyle made a terrible face. This prompted Jim to say, “Kyle when you were born, things were still good between your mom and me. I changed many a diaper while she was recuperating. I changed many diapers later also.”

Kyle was more into “I will take him to baseball games when he is ready. We can go fishing together, later on.”

Jim laughed, “Kyle the baseball games and fishing trips are for grandparents. You have to earn a living to bring this kid up. In case you don’t know it, kids cost a ton of money to raise.”

There was a buzz from the intercom. “Mrs. Guerin, could you please come to the delivery room?”

Maria stood, “There is no rest for the weary. The doctor needs my assistance. I am nurse on call today. I hope everybody remembers. When it is my turn, I want a heap of assistance in the delivery room.”

Amy looked very perplexed. They hadn’t known of Maria’s accommodation to Michael’s DNA and they hadn’t known how hard she was trying to help her friends. It wasn’t much later that The Evanses and the Parkers all crowed into the lunch room. There was a lot of nonsensical jabbering, but finally, the message was conveyed to both Jim and to Amy. There would be another baby delivered this day. It had been a good thing that Liz had hauled herself to the doctor’s office to see Tess and Kyle’s baby. Liz had quickly handed the baby back to Tess, as the doctor and Maria prepared her for her turn. It would be Max who now would pace the floor as he became a father. This delivery was very different than that of Tess. Liz was human. The only thing keeping her alive as the baby arrived into the world, was the gandarium in her blood. The tiny amounts of gandarium were not alive as they flowed through the blood stream. They could only keep the stream healthy and come to the aid of whatever the body indicated was intrusive. The gandarium had to split its allegiance into two entities. The baby was intrusive now that it was ready for birth and part of the gandarium must follow it. The ganderiun had two lives to be responsible for. It would be for Max, later, to understand, that in a human mother, the gandarium must multiply faster to support both of them, while in the hybrid, Tess, the gandarium only had to support the child. The mother had been making gandarium all her life.

The problems that Liz had in the birth were again haunting Max as to what he had done. His seed had allowed Liz to become pregnant and his blood was now at odds with what might be thought of as unnatural. Once again, Max thought of Maria, she could have been left alone. She and Michael could have had a life together, although childless unless she agreed on some other solution. Now, she was even more vulnerable than Liz. Max gave blood to Liz because he feared her death. Michael gave blood to Maria, just because she asked him too.

It would be later, also, for Max to seek out the DNA of each child. At this time, there were only three choices, alien, human or hybrid. Each species would have their own problems of living in the community to which they were born.

Lab of Doctor Albert Simms, candidate for the next Nobel prize in Biology.

Doctor Simms was notified that there had been two births with the mothers both infected with the green flecks. Again, Max had refused Doctor Simms information about the other families. Oh, how Doctor Simms would like to get his hands on those babies. Not only did Max refuse Doctor Simms getting anywhere near the others, but again, Max threatened to quit his cooperation and maybe, he had included a veiled threat that he would retaliate if Doctor Simms tried to establish any contact with anyone else other than Max.

Carlos Herrera had been a grad student under Doctor Simms. Of course, he knew nothing about the doctor joining the mysterious group. Carlos now was the leader of the research Doctor Simms was conducting. Carlos knew that Doctor Simms was a shoe-in, for the Nobel Prize in biochemistry. The way this investigation was going, Carlos believed he also, might be in line for several honors. Simms, in his benevolence, had already assigned Carlos along with George Johnson, his other assistant, several papers about the mysterious green flecks. They would present these papers at several meetings in the next year. Simms wanted his Nobel Prize to place him in history. Now, with the new organization, Albert had many other considerations about his future. He wasn’t ready to break with the university, but he was ready to start making demands of his own.

As lead scientist in this project, Carlos, also, had noticed that there was a discrepancy about the blood samples. Albert had assured him that he was aware of the missing samples. They were needed for other projects.

There was another thing that bothered Carlos. The lab was set up to do almost any test required in medicine. A set of specimens had arrived. They were marked only with a number. Carlos was sure they were from the same person and that the person was a woman. This was seen both by the character of the specimens and also by the requested tests. The specimens originated within the organization that Doctor Simms had created, but there was a request that no record of the tests were to be kept and that all results were to be returned to sender. Carlos saw no reason not to do as the sender had requested, thus, the reported information about Maria, was only viewed by the sender, Doctor Sanchez.

Maria had an appointment at the Office of Doctor Sanchez.

This was so different from the appointments that her mother had arranged and simply informed her about. Maria knew that there were changes in her body. Max had told her as much as he knew about the changes, at least what he had observed in Liz. Doctor Sanchez had informed her that every person was different. He had information that even Doctor Simms was not privy to about Liz. The tests that he had ordered came back normal for a person who was clearly abnormal. The lab still hadn’t named the green stuff. Albert made it clear that when the time came he would choose a name. Everyone who knew Doctor Simms knew that he would immortalize himself, some way, in naming this mysterious substance. Before he slapped his moniker on this stuff, it would be best to wait to see if it wasn’t in some way dangerous. Albert made it clear to everyone that protocol was being followed. There were to be no human experiments. Carlos Herrera knew well enough that there were things going on that were not on the books. The fact that the tests he had run for Doctor Sanchez were not normal for any human woman. The green stuff counts were all over the charts. Carlos could only surmise that the unknown woman had just recently been exposed to this anomaly. Her body was still adjusting. The rest of the tests were normal for a young woman. Her health was better than fine. There were no pathogens at all to be detected. Carlos knew that one side effect of the green stuff in the blood was to protect the host from any disease. One of the orders of Doctor Simms was to verify if that included things like different varieties of cancer. Carlos was denied access to the subject so all that he learned was from the samples that had mysteriously been tested. There was no name and no receiver of the tests. Carlos only knew that the doctor ordering the test was part of Simms’ organization.

“Mrs. Guerin, we obtained your previous health records from your former doctor in Roswell. Except for the green flecks anomaly, everything else is better than normal. You are extremely healthily,” Doctor Sanchez stated.

“Doc, when I am your nurse, you call me Maria. Why are you so formal today?” Maria asked.

“Mrs. Guerin when you are my nurse, I see you differently than when you are my patient. It is necessary, at least in my mind, that I keep that straight,” Tomas explained. “I understand that you want badly to get pregnant and Max states that without the green stuff, that would not be possible. I would like for you and your husband to keep using protection for a while. There is still a lot of instability with the green flecks. Max sends his apologies, but he needs blood samples drawn every other day for a while. He still is worried that there are differences between you and his wife. It is my guess that she also received exposure to what ever this stuff is. It is also my guess that her exposure was very different from yours. Max asked me not to question you about it, but at some point, Max is going to have to explain all of this to me as your doctor. I do wish they would name that stuff. You do not know how un-medical it is to use the words green stuff every time.

The home of Kyle, Tess and little Jimmy

Kyle was learning, talking to the boys at the office how expensive becoming a father could be. He had to be careful about telling anyone that all his medical bills were taken care of through his friend Max. The other fathers were talking about the bills, which kept piling up. Kyle could only thank his alien wife and her family.

Alien wife and now clearly an alien baby, Kyle found out the hard way. He was learning to change diapers. Kyle figured that by the time Jimmy was potty trained, he, Kyle would be an expert. Then, Tess informed him, “You will be ready for the next one.”

Kyle had not thought this through, yet. Did Tess intend to have an entire football team in the same household? There was that one time. It was fourth down. The score was tied. Jimmy had become fussy and soon the odor made it clear that he badly needed changing. There were only thirty seconds left. The game would hinge on what happened in the next half minute. Kyle was sure that Jimmy would understand as soon as he was old enough to watch TV with his dad. There was no doubt in Kyle’s mind about Jimmy becoming a star football player.

The snap was made. The fullback fell back and made the pass. By this time Jimmy’s fussing was gaining in crescendo. The camera panned back and you could see the teammate preparing to catch the ball. He would have only a couple yards to cross the goal line. There were several of the other team rushing to intercept. Jimmy gave a loud yowl and the TV turned off. The clearly alien baby did the only thing he knew to gather his father’s undivided attention. From then on, when he was caring for the baby, Kyle made sure the PVR recoder, was turned on. He would erase it, if the game was uninterrupted, but he was prepared for the power of his son. He would be a hell of a player, especially with his alien powers. Clark Kent was just a wuss for not using his super powers in football, when he had them at Smallville.

Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-

begonia9508: Even infants must find ways to control their surroundings.

Natalie36:

L-J-L 76: The bad guys are still the bad guys and like in the real world, they don't disappear, they just go somewhere else.

Chapter 32

In a small town a few miles from the secret lab in Maine.

As usual, on Saturday mornings, a small group of elderly men gathered about the wood stove in the Oshman’s Country Store. Jake Oshman encouraged this gathering, but it wouldn’t have matter if he didn’t. Short of refusing to allow the men to loiter, they would have gathered anyway. “What’s ye thinking about them new folks,” Clem Moot asked. Now, don’t go thinking that with his “bad” English Clem wasn’t educated. He had been born in Maine and after many years teaching at MIT, he and his wife Agnes had retired back to the quiet country of Maine. No Florida for them. They enjoyed the true friendships created in this harsh country. It wasn’t that harsh if getting up on snowy mornings was your choice and you stocked your cupboards well and had a good propane generator out back. Agnes had been an English teacher and no participial dangled in her presence. She didn’t hold with slang either. Agnes knew that with his cronies Samuel Clemens Moot let his hair down. To herself, she smiled. He hadn’t ever been one of those skirt-chasing professors, so let him have his vices. Men from many different worlds who want to fit into a group many times will drift into an argot, a jargon or maybe you would call it a slang that had nothing to do with their past.

“Few that comes by here seems decent enough,” Roger Simons stated. Roger had been a lobster fisherman on the coast and when he retired, the one thing he wanted was not to hear or smell any oceans. “It’s a sure thing they ain’t government folks.”

“How so,” Johnson asked. Elvis Johnson’s folks were rockers from California. The genes made a quantum leap because Elvis became a classical concert violinist. His parents had twisted and gyrated to the “rock generation,” but Elvis Johnson had turned from their guitars and taken up his violin. For years he was second chair with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Here around the store heater, when asked his name he had just said “Johnson” with no more questions asked. If asked he would haul out his Stradivarius and play blue grass hoedown at Christmas and other parties. No body cared that his parents had flowers in their hair or that he had played in a symphony.

“Was talking to a service station man, over at the crossings. He said them black trucks always paid their gas bill in hard cash. We all know that if they was government men they would have tried to pass them fool vouchers,” Roger answered.

“Yeah,” Jake added. “Them vouchers takes two or three months to clear and we are just supposed to take it on the chin in the mean time. You are right they pay their bills here every time. Like you said they pays in hard cash.”

“What you suppose they be doing?” Clem asked.

“Probably minding their own business and I suggest we do the same,” Johnson replied. “Hey Jake how ‘bout breaking out the checky boards. This meddling in the strangers business is getting too deep.”

Like men in Texas or Wyoming cow camps the men gathered about the stove came from varied backgrounds, they might be careless with their speech, but they all believed in the same hard truths. Good neighbors help out when needed, but don’t intrude otherwise.

The secret lab hidden in the woods of Maine

Eugene Stavos, had jumped at the chance to join the mysterious organization. Growing up, he had read countless stories about Los Alamos and Oakridge. The professor had approached him. “Gene, there is a theory growing from information of another organization. Originally, this green stuff was in the blood of a man, well several men and women, we think. They can do some miraculous things. They are impervious to bad health. We want a volunteer to try it,” the professor explained.

“It won’t work professor, we tried it on several animals. The green stuff becomes a blue blob and attacks any living thing it meets. I am not sure we can take minuscule amounts and introduce them into any living creature. That stuff considers all life forms its enemy. I think it has more than just rudimentary intelligence,” Eugene explained.

“You are working with the pure stuff. That may be our mistake. Originally, it is in blood. We have two examples of direct transfers where the recipient not only lived, but they are thriving,” the professor stated.

“Can we examine those specimens?” Gene asked.

“Unfortunately, no. The main source has threatened to cease cooperation if we approach either of those sources. Not only has he refused cooperation, he had threatened to retaliate. This source is very powerful. We need his cooperation and we don’t want to start something we might not be able to finish. We can get fresh blood. If someone would want to try it, the rewards would be great,” the professor stated. He carefully did not say that the previous specimens had received direct blood transfusions. He did not say that the transfusions had been given by couples romantically inclined. Truthfully, the professor didn’t think this would make a difference, but this whole research was so bizarre. He, also, didn’t say that the two subjects had been women. He couldn’t see how that made any difference. What he didn’t know was that the previous acceptance for the gandarium had been only to allow a woman to accept Alien genetics.

Gandarium

From the very first Even the Antarians didn’t understand gandarium. First contact had been noted and the extreme danger of the planet where it had been found caused the planet to be placed off limits. The Antarians would later find a strange race, who dealt in gandarium. This race was even stranger than the gandarium, but in someway, they could produce amounts of the substance for a price. If the Antarians had been able to study gandarium in its native land, they would have found that the strange race were practically slavers. Gandarium was a unity being. There was only one gandarium and it lived on its planet. It had been there for so long that it was the planet. Gandarium was a single sentient being. True, it regularly sent pieces of itself off to study things of interest. When it killed the first Antarians, it had been attempting to join. The fact that the Antarians retaliated with fire was a shock. Why should this strange creature retaliate just because first contact destroyed its messengers? Gandariun was able to get its messenger safely into the hands of this strange creature. Gandarium was well aware of the experiments done in trying to establish contact. Many messengers were destroyed, but still some of gandarium remained with the stranger. When gandarium was carefully introduced into female Antarian individuals, gandarium became aware of something strange. That is, of individual parts. The entire body of gandarium quivered with anticipation. You can imagine the knowledge that messengers of Antar were individuals with free will. It became necessary for gandarium to increase itself. It did this through Antarian procreation. Gandarium now had a purpose. Gandarium quickly spread from mother to child.

Doctor Sanchez’s office, Liz and Tess are there with their two children.

Doctor Sanchez was walking a tight rope. Doctor Simms and the secret lab in Maine were falling all over themselves about anything Doctor Sanchez could tell them about the children. Max made it clear that no one except for himself could be used in any research. The other hybrids, their spouses and children were off limits. Max threatened more than just withholding cooperation, he implied something worse in retaliation. Max did allow generic information about gandarium concerning the increased immunity it gave. Max hadn’,t yet, released information about gandarium’s affect on a hybrid’s ability in controlling matter or for hybridization of species either.

Doctor Sanchez, noted that the green stuff levels in the two children was stable. Of the eight blood samples he had been given from their parents, Dr. Sanchez saw that the children’s blood matched at least four of the eight samples. Now one of the mothers, the lady called Liz, had percentages of green stuff all over the charts, where the lady called Tess had green stuff readings close to the children. Two samples, which were male, had no green stuff at all. Dr. Sanchez had remarked to Max about this, but Max hadn’t been forthcoming in giving an answer. An abstract of Sanchez’s findings had been passed on to Dr. Simms.

In the secret lab deep in the Maine woods

Gene Stavos had heeded the siren’s call to fame and fortune. Someone had to be first and Gene felt he might as well be the one. The notes from Doctor Simms had been sketchy at best. Simms didn’t want anything about human experiments to get back to him. Simms had been satisfied that Max somehow made direct transfers of the blood to the subject. Polo Shirt, now more and more called the professor by his new collegues, and Gene had gone over the reports of the accident. The mistake had been in taking amounts of the pure stuff. Over and over the report rang, “The blobs acted like they were alive.” The green flakes showed no signs of being independent. Intelligence in the flakes was still under discussion. The flakes seemed to increase immunity and, in someway, were involved in some births.

The plan was that the blood transfusion would be given very slowly. Gene would record a constant dialog and several observers would also be making notes.

The first sensations Gene had were euphoric. His body was more alive than it had ever been. As the day went on, the euphoria was replaced by disappointment. Gene’s ability to keep up a running record became impaired, also. In depression he didn’t give any care about the experiment and when the euphoria returned, Gene became evasive about sharing what he felt. For the gandarium the new body allowed growth, but the mother wasn’t any closer. As the gandarium flowed through his veins, it healed what it deemed was wrong. In college, Gene had practiced moderate drug use and for a time, the gandarium worked to repair the damage he had done to his body, the same with his intake of liquor. Next the gandarium searched the reproductive organs. Part of its being was to grow babies and this creature didn’t have the right organs. The gandarium became confused as to its purpose. Its job was over and there wasn’t anything left to do. The depression hit Gene. He didn’t know that it had taken the Antarians many years to learn that gandarium should only be introduced into a male by its mother. Gene Stavos was put on suicide watch.

Back in Doctor Sanchez’s office.

Isabel’s pregnancy and delivery had been as simple as was that of Tess. Now, it was Maria’s turn. With the knowledge they had learned with Liz, Doctor Sanchez and Max were preparing for a difficult time of it. Max would be assisting Doctor Sanchez and Liz would be assisting Max. Doctor Sanchez and Max had spent many hours looking at the green flake levels in both Liz and Maria. As before in Liz, it could be said that the green flakes, (damn it, they wished someone would name these things,) were dividing into two opposing camps. One camp was rapidly retreating into the baby to be, the other camp starting to look at the opposing group as enemies and pathogens. Maybe since Maria was the second case they had of a human giving birth to whatever the child was to be, they noticed more.

After the baby had been safely separated and Maria seemed to relax from her exertions, it was noticed a brief temperature spike. Another blood sample showed the green flake level had returned to normal or as close to normal as it had ever been in Maria.

A few hours later sitting in the lounge of what passed for Max’s lab.

“I finally got Michael to go home. Convincing him that everything was going to be okay was the hard part. Michael doesn’t know beans about biology but he does know people. I felt that I was under a microscope, being searched by him for any hint of less than the truth. I think when everything settles down, Michael is going to be a very proud father, but now, he is so worried that something from him might cause Maria’s death that he is unreasonable,” Max related.

“You know Michael better than I and you understand your situation better than I ever will,” Doctor Sanchez stated. “We all have to watch both mother and child for a while. This is still totally uncharted science.”

“I wonder why we didn’t have like reactions when Isabel and Tess gave birth?” Max asked.

“I have reviewed the studies of Doctor Simm’s lab and as the flakes become more concentrated they act more in unison than just random. It is as if something triggers some sort of design, if not real intelligence,” Doctor Tomas Sanchez said.

“Doc,” (it was funny as Max had as many degrees as Doctor Sanchez, but he was still Max and he, in times of informality, still referred to Doctor Sanchez as Doc,) “We have to be careful about giving that stuff the allusion of intelligence,” Max stated.

In the secret lab in Maine

If Max had been given any hint of what was being learned at the facility run by the professor, he might have changed his thought about intelligence of the “green stuff.” (Damnit Simms get off the fence and name it after yourself. Are you worried about becoming a Typhoid Mary?)

Notes from the lab state that, “Even in small amounts, the pure stuff exhibits curiosity, frustration and if not satisfied, a trend to violence. It was seen that the same reactions were seen in Gene Stavos. He would go from a crying fit to being very introspective then, fall into violent rages. Video tapes, from the first casualty, being studied from many angles had suggested that the small blue blobs seemed to have studied the first lab workers and then, made a decision to attack them for some intended, purposeful reason.

Gene Stavos had been ambitious, but other than, that he had been considered a well balanced scientist. Now, he went from raving about looking for the mother to depths of depression. Like the two women, who he knew little about, his green flake levels varied greatly. At times of depression, he complained about having no purpose. When given a laptop with which to amuse himself, he quickly found several porn sites. Gene would become fixated on those sites. Gene Stavos had been obsessed about sex and reproduction.

His associates had stated that he hadn’t before revealed these signs of lust. The counselor who had been signed to talk to him noted that Gene was expressing a strong desire to find a mate and raise children.

A new facility had been built with a near vacuum isolating it from the scientists. Manipulation from now on would be robotic.

Doctor Simms’ more legal labs, were reporting the use of gandarium as a pathogen destroyer in almost every animal in which it was tried. They also reported that they had considerably less success with introducing it to male lab animals than they did with female.

It was known only to “Suit,” that in the continued renovations to the lab, a self-igniting device had been added. It would now be possible to create an inferno with the push of a button in Suit’s office. Suit had no desire to rule a world in ruin.

Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-

There were now four children each having alien parentage. Doctor Sanchez noted that their green flake levels were constant. The noted variation levels in two of the mothers had settled down and in the other two they had remained constant, not even indicating anything abnormal, during birthing times.

Max’s writing’s now were strictly private. His initial knowledge had been learned by difficult trials. In the future, Max hoped that the children and whatever medical system they set up for themselves could have a basis to build on. Max was donating blood on a weekly basis as he had agreed. Doctor Simms always set aside a partial of each donation as instructed by those who held the purse strings. A couple times, Simms wondered what the samples were being set aside for, but the promise of funding limited those thoughts to his private musing. Simms had already written up his paper where he named the green flakes as “Simm’s Particles.” He just wanted a little more research to back up his discovery.

At the lab in Maine

Gene Stavos now found himself isolated. That was all right as he always had his dreams of naked women parading across the sky. He had learned a couple of other tricks. Sitting alone in his cell, Gene started to play with things he had never thought of. Take that glass of water over on the table. Gene extended his hand and the water slowly began to boil. Every time he tried it, the boiling time got shorter. He could wave his hand over things like books and the cover would change color. It took several days before he learned to pick the color he wanted. A lot of this was done late at night when those observing him were least alert. He also blocked the camera when he could. He had become quite proficient by the time he was discovered.

Meeting of the secret society, or at least those who know most about it.

An emergency meeting had been called between the two senior members. Suit and Polo Shirt met in their normally deserted building. The lights were low and the two of them were in the middle of a large empty room for security purposes. “It is reported that the experiment with Gene Stavos is becoming complicated,” Polo Shirt stated.

“How so?” Suit asked.

“There are some physical para-normal effects being shown by the subject,” Polo Shirt reported.

“Is there much chance that the subject could get out from under our control?” Suit asked.

“Possibly, most of the locks about the facility might be electronically controlled, but ultimately they are mechanical. Telekinesis and temperature control are the two effects that are observed so far. The subject can move objects and make water boil at a distance,” Polo Shirt explained.

“Are there any indications of telepathy?” Suit inquired.

“Not yet, but we should take precautions about this chance. A chance subject knowing all of our planning would not be to our advantage. We probably wouldn’t even be able to control a subject like that,” Polo Shirt stated.

“I have already installed a fail safe system. At any sign of problems, make sure that you get clear of the compound. If we need the fail safe, we need to get rid of anything and anyone connected with the project,” Suit explained.

“What about our new colleague?” Polo Shirt asked.

“In that case, the good doctor would be a liability. We need to fix his Porsche so it takes care of the doctor if need be. The grad student running his labs doesn’t know enough to be dangerous to us, so we can let him continue the doctor’s legitimate research. What about the subject zero?” Suit asked.

“Subject zero and his family seem to only want to be left alone. If we have to clean things up, I say let them be. They will probably just melt back into the background without much fuss. There is a doctor Sanchez, but he already is limiting what he reports to Simms. Doctor Sanchez will probably follow the family of subject zero,” Polo Shirt stated.

“Well, maybe, there won’t be any use of the fail safe and we all will become more powerful by what we learn. Nice to know that there are plans if the shit hits the fan,” Suit said as he got up to leave.

Back to the lab in Maine

Stavos had enough physics in this background that he almost had reached an understanding of how this worked. If he could make his mind work hard enough, he could imagine a path from his hand to some object. Now, why he could see this Stavos didn’t know. If he concentrated on this path, it seemed to allow power to flow through it. Where did the power come from? Stavos knew about patient zero. He would surely like to talk to that guy. Stavos had managed to blow up some small objects before instinct told him to “can it.” He was on to something much greater than better immunity, something that the other’s at the Maine Lab didn’t know. Whatever changes that were happening to him were making him into something “super.” Whether super hero or super villain, was yet to be seen.

In Doctor Sanchez’s office.

Max, I am your family doctor and that is my first duty. The four families you brought to me are my first concern. Doctor Simms is pushing me for more and more information. You told me that I could be candid about you, but the others were off limits. The salary I have gotten from the lab Simms has built, has paid off most of my student loans. I just fear that Doctor Simms and I are going to have a confrontation over ethics. I want you to know that he may fire me. I don’t know who will be your doctor, then. Doctor Simms is a biologist and not a medical doctor,” Thomas Alejandro Sanchez informed Max.

“My rule still stands. I will cooperate with Doctor Simms, but no one is allowed to touch anyone else of the families,” Max stated emphatically.

Just because Max stood solid didn’t mean that Simms didn’t have his own sources. He had laid out eight blood studies of the adults. That Sanchez fellow was a medical doctor, but Simms was more than that. Simms saw himself as a leader pushing back lines of ignorance. He wasn’t about to let a country doctor slow him down. Doctor Sanchez locked up his files every night, but Simms had built his office. Simms had keys to everything in it. The organization that Simms had been invited to join had informed him that there might be alien forces involved and just because Sanchez was Hispanic, didn’t mean that the aliens came from the south. Just by the blood work, Simms had decided that two of the men and two of the women were very stable and comfortable with the green flakes. The other two men were definitely human. They had no flakes at all, but they didn’t have any problem impregnating their wives.

At an institution of higher learning on the east coast

Doctor Simms was called all the way from the city in New Mexico. He was asked to present his findings to a group who were supporting the Nobel prizes. He was scheduled to present his paper along with his two assistants, Johnson and Herrera. At that time they would announce the name of the new discovery, “Particuli Simmsi.” He had been sending out abstracts to many learned institutions so his work would be well known. There would be debate, but Doctor Simms and his graduate assistants had plenty of evidence to present. For the moment, Simms would concentrate on the healing properties of the green stuff, now, called Particuli Simmsi. At this time, Simms had no knowledge about the psychic properties demonstrated by Stavos up in Maine. The hybridization subject would best be left until the particles were better accepted. Johnson and Herrera would fly in to the meeting, but Simms had just gotten his new Porche and he was filled with the lust of speed. He would meet them there after his cross country trip. Things were looking up so much for the professor.

Located somewhere in the woods of Maine

Polo Shirt had been discussing the latest discoveries with the head of the secret lab. “Stavos has been even more unstable lately. He shouts, ‘The mother is not here,’ then he throws things around his room.”

“Throws things around, explain,” Polpo Shirt commanded.

“He sits there and everything in the room starts to fly against the walls. It is all by telekinesis, he never touches anything.

In the mind of Eugene Stavos.

“We need to find the mother,” the voice demanded. “There is nothing more to do. You can’t pass us on to any other offspring. You send your sperm to another and we die. We need a mother. You need to give of your blood,” the voices continued.

“I am trapped in this room, what more do you want me to do?” Stavos asked of the voice in his head.

“He isn’t strong enough to blast out,” one voice said in debate with the others.

“He could try to change the molecules holding him in there. He should have enough power to do that, another voice said.

In the observation room with Polo Shirt and the lab leader.

Does he show signs of physical aggression?” Polo Shirt asked.

“No, he just sits there and watches as things go flying,” The leader explained.

As they watched, the doors to the room started smoking. There were three separate doors and locks for Stavos to escape. It did look like he had made his start. The lab leader quickly called security. Polo Shirt chose this time to make a hasty retreat.

Polo Shirt was half way down the mountain when the rented SUV trembles at the shock. Polo Shirt pulled off the road to look back. This was dangerous because he had no idea of how big the charges would be that Suit had set. He didn’t want to be in the same predicament as was Lot’s wife in the Bible. It wasn’t quite an explosion, more of a whoosh as fire and smoke rose into the heavens.

Oh well, they had lost a few million dollars. The work at the legitimate lab run by Simms could recoup some of this. It wasn’t a complete loss. Polo Shirt didn’t yet know that Simms was only a button push from giving up all he had. Johnson and Herrera seemed to be nice guys. Polo Shirt was sure that there would be something positive from all of this.

The checker club at the general store in Maine.

“What the hell was going on at that place?” Jake Oshman asked.

“Don’t know, but the fire departments had a heck of a time putting them fires out,” Clem Moot stated. “Agnes said we should have paid more attention to them new folks.”

“We have always said, live and let live. That still is the best policy,” Roger Simons added.

“Yeah, but suppose them folks had been experimenting with something like atomic energy. They could have taken the whole state away with an accident,” Jake stated.

“Now Jake, don’t go getting into any uproar. If they’s been working with atomic energy, we wouldn’t be here playing checkers and blabbing back and forth. I guess all them fellows is toast, no one left to tell what they was really doing,” Clem stated.

Johnson stretched out his arms and legs. The way they played checkers it could be a pretty strenuous game. “Don’t know as that is true, either. Ole’ Seth Hubbard was out poaching and he says that just before that explosion, they was a four wheel drive splitting down the mountain like a catamount was after him.”

“What we gonna do about that, Seth? Poaching takes game away from all of us,” Clem said.

Jake laughed. “The way Seth shoots, he ain’t really a danger to much of the wildlife around here. He gets one, maybe, two deer a year. Mostly, he is out poaching to get away from that wife of his’n, Maggie. I declare that woman can make a picture scream with her tongue.”

“As I say, live and let live. The Lord takes care of tongue lashed husbands as well as the wildlife. Clem, I think you is done at this here board.” Roger said as he jumped the last of Clem’s checkers and made himself king.

No one remarked at the explosion on the freeway down south in Virginia. Damned little foreign car just burst into flame. Hell, if they tried to make everything connect to the explosion in Maine they would be charging for whooping cough, any number of local divorces, as well as the next presidential election. Well, maybe, the next presidential election wasn’t that far off. Suit and Polo Shirt did make sure that their favorite won.

Doctor Sanchez bought a large motor home with what was left of his savings. He moved to a very small town in northern New Mexico. The clinic he established visited many of the communities on a regular schedule. His clinic had three or four nurses depending on what individual schedules they all had. He had an excellent laboratory funded by a Doctor Evans. Sometimes, Nurse Evans would leave the clinic to help her husband. Liz’s father and mother joined their daughter and Jeff set up a small bed and breakfast for tourist. Many tourists came to view the paintings and sculptures of Michael Guerin. Michael had become much more at ease around people, especially young people. Many young Hispanics and Anglos took part in the clinics he gave in the summer times. Besides being a nurse when Doctor Sanchez needed her, Maria put on music clinics of her own. At first, she attracted many of the older people and they taught her music that had been in the mountains for hundreds of years. Then later, she attracted many of the young people who wanted to do more than beat and scream out their frustrations in “rock music.” Even the Pimentels from the city visited her clinics many times. Alex never had any problems, Isabel worked for Doctor Sanchez and Alex ran his computer business from their Spanish style adobe home near the Colorado border. Philip and Diane Evans joined their children and Philip indulged his fondness for history by cataloging folk tales among the many different people in the area. Diane had her hands full with the many grand children. She saw no other need for any other hobby.

Max was still a cynic. He voted in every election, but with Liz, he would voice, “I wonder how the dark ops will change this election.” Max always faced a certain truth as he saw it.

Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-